Drafting a fantasy football team is not a mistake-free endeavor.
For all the mock drafts and reading you do beforehand, sometimes you just hit the wrong button, and your team doesn't turn out how you wanted it. What's more likely to occur, though, is a deviation from your pre-draft plan during a run on running backs, tight ends, quarterbacks—you name it—with the timer running out, forcing you to make a panicked pick.
In that case, it’s important to have contingency plans in place, and lots of them. The SI Fantasy team has rankings hundreds of players deep for PPR, dynasty, rookie-only and superflex in the 2022 draft kit, and you should use rankings to help guide your draft decisions, but they’re not to be followed blindly.
Taking into account positional value is important when it comes to roster construction. That's why quarterbacks, even though they score the most points each season (save for 2021 when Cooper Kupp went scorched Earth), are generally not wise early-round selections in redraft leagues.
Keeping in mind that not every draft decision you make will be the equivalent of the Patriots landing Tom Brady with the 199th pick, let's kick off the first installment of the second annual draft strategy series! I will share my thoughts and I'll hand it over to my editor, Matt De Lima, to chime in with his opinions to put a bow on it. We'll walk through how to proceed in the early rounds of a draft with different draft slot groupings from 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12. Picks 1-3 will kick things off.
Draft Pick Draft Strategies
Picks: 1 to 3 | 4 to 6 | 7 to 9 | 10 to 12
